Sustainable agricultural production systems

INVITED REVIEW Sustainable intensification in agricultural systems

†Background Agricultural systems are amended ecosystems with a variety of properties. Modern agroecosystems have tended towards high through-flow systems, with energy supplied by fossil fuels directed out of the system (either deliberately for harvests or accidentally through side effects). In the coming decades, resource constraints over water, soil, biodiversity and land will affect agricultu...

Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century

enough food, feed, and fi ber to meet increasing demand in conditions of changing climate and scarce natural resources. Innovative policies and new farming approaches based on a strong scientifi c foundation are needed to tackle the challenge of increasing production while also meeting environmental, economic, and social goals. This report, produced with the support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundati...

Conserving agricultural biodiversity for use in sustainable food systems Conservation

Sustainable development of agricultural systems: competing objectives and critical limits

The sustainability of agricultural systems has become a major focus for debates about future human survival. Much of the argument appears to rely on simplistic interpretation of ecological models, and fails adequately to define what sustainability objectives are being sought. We explore the implications of two alternative approaches to agricultural sustainability: the Critical Limits view which...

Sustainable Uses of FGD Gypsum in Agricultural Systems: Introduction.

Interest in using gypsum as a management tool to improve crop yields and soil and water quality has recently increased. Abundant supply and availability of flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum, a by-product of scrubbing sulfur from combustion gases at coal-fired power plants, in major agricultural producing regions within the last two decades has attributed to this interest. Currently, publish...